Alphonse rousseau



(No Model.)

A. BOUSSEAU. 01.0mm POUNDER.

.No. 471,025. Patented Mar. 15, 1892.

IIVVEIVTOR:

WITNESSES:

fWa/u) Byt%myg A TTORIVEYS- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC ALPHONSE ROUSSEAU, OF FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN P. ROUSSEAU, OF SAME PLACE.

CLOTH ES-POUNDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 471,025, dated March 15, 1892.

Application filed August 3| 1891- Serial No. 401,561. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALPHONSE ROUSSEAU, of Fall River, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Clothes-\Vasher, of which the following is a full, clear and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in that class of clothes-washers which are adapted to wash clothes of all kinds without the use of a rubbing-board.

My in vention relates especially to improvements in the well-known inverted funnelshaped washer; and the object of my invention is to increase the efficiency of washers of this class and at the same time produce a washer which can be more easily worked and which will not in any Way injure the clothes.

To this end my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the washer embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same.

The shell of the washer is of an invertedfunnel or bell shape, is turned over at the bottom around the edge, as shown at 11, so that it cannot cut or tear the clothes, and is provided with a socket 12 at the top in which the handle 13 is secured. Near the bottom of the shell is a transverse partition 14, which has a central aperture therein, said aperture being kept normally closed by a valve 15, which is a simple plate shutting against .the partition 14, and the valve 15 hason its upper side a staple 16, to which the lower end of a spiral spring 17 is secured, the upper end of said spring being secured in a similar staple 18 on the under side of the socket 12, and the tension of the spring is such that the valve 15 will be normally held in a raised or closed position. -Above the transverse partition 14 is an inclined partition 19, which slopes inward to the aperture in the partition 14, and which thus causes ;the shell 10 to drain readily, and also facilitates the passage of air through the shell. In the upper portion of the shell 10 is a series of holes 20, through which air passes to the interior of the shell.

The operation of the Washer is as follows: The clothes are placed in water in a tub, and in order that the washer may work nicely and easily the clothes should be soaked over night.

The washer is moved up and down in the tub upon the clothes, and when the washer is raised a vacuum will be created between the partition 14 and the clothes beneath the washer, and the suction thus created will draw the water through the-clothes and the passage of the water will take out the dirt. When the suction becomes somewhat strong, the valve 15 is pulled down, and the air, entering through the perforations and the central aperture in the partition 14, will permit the washer to be easily raised from the clothes. The up-and-down movement of the washer upon the clothes will force the water through 1 them in opposite directions, and after working the device for a short time the clothes will be washed clean. 7

Having thus described my invention I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A clothes-pounder comprising the funnelshaped shell 10, provided with the handlesocket 12, the openings 20 in its upper portion, the apertured transverse partition 14 near the bottom, the inclined transverse partition 19 above the partition 14 and sloping toward the aperture thereof, the valve 15, and the spring 17, having one end secured to the valve and the other to the handlesocket, substantially as herein shown and described.

ALPHONSE ROUSSEAU;

WVitnesses:

FRANK A. PEASE, ERNEST J. HARRISON. 

